J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Switzerland 1802 > St Gothard and Mont Blanc Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Mont Blanc, from Sallanches 1802

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Mont Blanc, from Sallanches’ 1802
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Mont Blanc, from Sallanches 1802
D04603
Turner Bequest LXXV 11
Pencil, black chalk, watercolour and white gouache on white wove paper prepared with grey wash, 320 x 376 mm
Stamped in black ‘LXXV 11’ bottom right
Blind-stamped with the Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner’s label for this drawing reads ‘Le Montagne vis a vis St Martin avec le Arve Savoy’ [sic], reflecting the prominence given to Mont Blanc. The view is actually from Sallanches, and represents what was for many travellers their first clear view of the massif if approaching, as Turner did, from Bonneville and Cluses. With its tiled houses, villagers, flock of sheep and screen of trees, the drawing served as the basis of the watercolour made c.1809, perhaps for Walter Fawkes (private collection).1 Turner drew a similar view on a sheet of sketches around Cluses and Sallanches during his tour with H.A.J. Munro of Novar in 1836 (see the Val d’Aosta sketchbook, Tate D29087, Turner Bequest CCXCIII 28a).
Turner listed ‘Salenche’ twice among subjects commissioned, in hand or ‘done’ at the front of his album of 1802 dawings (see Technical notes to the Grenoble sketchbook, Tate Turner Bequest LXXIV).
1
Wilton 1979, p.342 no.379; sold Sotheby's, London, 14 July 1994, no.130..
Verso:
Laid down

David Blayney Brown
October 2011

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Mont Blanc, from Sallanches 1802 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, October 2011, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-mont-blanc-from-sallanches-r1146514, accessed 19 April 2024.